That's right buddy. You can make like Fleetwood Mac and go your own way.

OK, so maybe you don’t draw territorial lines on a map in order to keep your distance, but there are unspoken boundaries you don’t cross, right? You stop shopping at the grocery store closest to his apartment, and you expect that he won’t take any new dates to your favorite coffee shop.

I thought I had eliminated this problem by, you know, moving several states away from my ex after our painful breakup. So you can imagine my unpleasant surprise when I got a text from my ex this weekend asking if I cared if he and his friend came to Columbus (where I live now) this fall for an Ohio State football game. Um, YES. I care.

Now, to be fair to my ex, the city of Columbus has nearly 800,000 people, and I do not happen to own the city at this current time. Additionally, the football stadium, affectionately known as The Shoe, seats over 100,000 every game, and thousands more come for the party. It’s not like he’s suggesting dropping in on lunch at my best friend’s house.

But to be fair to me, going to Ohio State games is MY thing! (I mean, me and everyone else in Ohio. But not his.) My family has been doing it for years, and they come to town every home game weekend. In fact, the only time my ex has been to an OSU game prior to this is with me, visiting my family. I like invented his Ohio State experience. And also, might I remind you, he cheated on me and hurt me so bad I moved out of my beloved New York City! Have I not earned the right to claim just the state of Ohio to myself for peace of mind? OK, I'm kidding about the whole state. Kind of.

Ugh. Of course I didn’t tell him he couldn’t. I wasn’t the boss of him when I was his girlfriend, so I’m certainly not going to be now. And it turns out, the crisis is pretty much averted--the weekend he wants to come, I’ll actually be in New York for my friend’s wedding. Of course, there’s a chance he could run into my family if he comes, but I guess that’s his problem to deal with. But am I within my rights to be a little annoyed that he’s even contemplating this? He didn’t go to school here and doesn’t have friends in the area, so there’s no pressing reason he needs to be in town. (His friend went to the school OSU will play that particularly weekend. Whatevs.) The whole situation makes me uncomfortable, and I feel like he’s encroaching on my turf just to torture me!

Are there unofficial boundaries you don't cross after a breakup? Is this one of them, or am I being WAY too dramatic and territorial? (Claiming a whole state might be a little much.) Do you go out of your way to avoid an ex after a breakup or is it not a big deal to run into each other?